Nick Cafardo hears from one AL executive that the compensation for Theo Epstein will likely be significant.
10. The Cubs and Red Sox will soon meet with a representative of the Commissioner’s Office or the commissioner himself to discuss the Epstein compensation issue. The best school of thought on this comes from an AL GM who is not associated with either team: “I think the commissioner will give the Red Sox a significant player. I don’t think MLB wants executives leaving their teams before their contracts are up and therefore he will try to deter teams from doing that again.’’
This doesn’t make sense to me. If anything I’d think that MLB would not want teams to stand in the way of a person’s chance at a promotion. If MLB decides that significant compensation is what’s due here, what impact will it have? Mercurial Outfielder mentioned in the comments that the impact would be that no ambitious executive would take more than a short-term deal.
There’s one thing to remember here: the Red Sox granted the Cubs permission to talk to Theo Epstein and allowed Theo to accept the job. The Red Sox did not even have to allow the Cubs to talk to him. They chose to do so. If MLB doesn’t want executives leaving, it’s very simple: teams don’t have to allow other teams the right to talk to their employees. There is already a system in place to prevent executives from leaving before their contract is up. The Red Sox chose to ignore it. This is fairly common in baseball when it comes to an executive leaving for a promotion.
As far as I’m concerned, the Red Sox are owed nothing. They had the ability to keep Theo and chose not to. How MLB could award a significant piece to Boston is beyond me.
Comments
[img]http://cache.deadspin.com/assets/images/11/2009/11/custom_1259435690258_bud_selig.jpg[/img]
Mercurial OutfielderQuote Reply
Exactly! The sense of entitlement from the Red Sox here is pretty fucking galling.
Mercurial OutfielderQuote Reply
[img]http://i43.tinypic.com/25ivf34.jpg[/img]
Suburban kidQuote Reply
I don’t recognize him in the one picture where he is smiling and doesn’t have his hands near his face. It is so unnatural.
Suburban kidQuote Reply
(dying laughing) SK Well done
mb21Quote Reply
Jeebus. How many pictures are there of Bud Selig looking like a sad, confused old codger?
Mercurial OutfielderQuote Reply
Also, it appears that while he has a few different suits. he’s only got one shirt and one tie.
Suburban kidQuote Reply
Does he have a hearing problem?
mb21Quote Reply
mb21 wrote:
I guess for 98 year old his hearing is fantastic. On an absolute scale though, it’s probably not.
DamageControlFreakQuote Reply
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/01/29/ruben-amaro-is-just-fine-with-ryan-howards-contract/
Mercurial OutfielderQuote Reply
Mercurial Outfielder wrote:
What the hell happened to Ryan Howard? His numbers look good — not $25M/season good, maybe — until 2009, then his defense and offense drop off the face of the map.
joshQuote Reply
josh wrote:
Age-based decline. He’s 32 years old now, and he always had a bad body.
Mercurial OutfielderQuote Reply
He came up as an older prospect too. He was 25 or 26 in his rookie campaign.
MishQuote Reply
@ Mish:
Yeah, I think most people don’t realize how old he was when he came up.
Mercurial OutfielderQuote Reply
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
Most teams game the arbitratrion clock, but the Phillies chose to bring up Howard and Utley at more advanced ages so that they could capture their primes for cheaper. Of course, the Howard extension essentially nullifies that whole strategy. (dying laughing)
MishQuote Reply
Howard was never all THAT good and was never worth the contract he signed. That one and the Fielder contract are likely going to be among the 3 or 4 worst contracts ever signed. Zito is up there too.
mb21Quote Reply
@ mb21:
In FA dollars, Fielder’s been worth $22.95 mil/yr over the last 3 years in terms of fWAR (avg of 5.1 WAR/yr). His deal pays him an average of $23 mil/yr, so at least one can see the rationale, even if is way too long. But that Howard deal is just ridiculous. Like you say, he was never worth that deal, and never will be.
Mercurial OutfielderQuote Reply
Howard’s not going to be worth his contract, but if you want to find some shred of rationale for it you can point to his MVP in his sophomore season, as well as placing in the top 5 in MVP voting the following three years leading up to the extension. His WAR numbers aren’t so gaudy, obviously but it’s clear that lots of people thought he was that good.
BerseliusQuote Reply
I was actually thinking he was right around 26 or 27 right now. Howard made a name for himself in post-season. It’s easy to see why from a perspective of name recognition and all that they thought he would be worth a lot. Seems like the old model was to overvalue post-season performance.
joshQuote Reply
Josh, you have some really good stuff here: http://obb.joshuallen.com/
Well done.
mb21Quote Reply
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
I don’t know, MO. I don’t see the rationale here. He’s at or past his prime so will only be getting worse. He’s played almost every game and there’s no way he’s going to keep that up. His playing time will go down, his bat will get worse, his baserunning even worse and the same for his fielding.
mb21Quote Reply
mb21 wrote:
It’s like xkcd for Cubs fans. Very nice.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
mb21 wrote:
Thanks. It gives me something to do when I’m bored at work.
joshQuote Reply
josh wrote:
I was wondering what your avatar was. I like how the hope monster is flipping us off (dying laughing)
WaLiQuote Reply
New stuff:
http://obstructedview.net/chicago-cubs/dfp-1-12-30-he-saw-it-all.html
AndCountingQuote Reply
So, this is awesome:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYBTX_GmSM8
(Spoilers)
GBTSQuote Reply
@ AndCounting:
Funny how not one baseball”genius” on here has absolutely no friggin clue why a NATIONAL LEAGUE team WITHOUT the DH had to overpay Howard when he was extended. Can anyone honestly look at the deals the premiere catchers and first basemen signed the last five years (with AMERICAN LEAGUE teams) and still wonder why Howard’s annual salary is HIGHER but the contract is shorter. Its called concessions guys! Howard basically said you pay me more each year for 4-5 years less or I walk and sign with an American League team in December 2011. Bunch of idiots on here.
ChrisQuote Reply
@ mb21:
I love it! NEVER all that good the guy says. Let’s see rookie of the year, MVP, silver slugger, 2009 National League championship series MVP, two time HR champ as well AS a two time RBI LEADER, World Series Champion, has carried the Phillies into the postseason at least three different August/Septembers, fastest player to 200 HR In ML history, 2nd fastest player to 500 RBI, And won the HR Derby. that sounds like a pretty terrific career considering he has ONLY 6-1/2 SEASONS!!!!!!!!
ChrisQuote Reply